‘Structures, tactics and planning’ Rafa Benitez’s talk at Planet Football
The coach from Madrid took part in the inaugural event 'Congress of Football and Technology'
Under the general title of ‘Structures, tactics and planning for the future’ Rafa Benitez last Friday, 10 February, took part as a guest speaker in the first edition of the ‘ Congress of Football and Technology’ which was jointly held with ‘Planet Football’, an exhibition to show new technologies. Both were held at the ‘City of Football’ at Las Rozas, the headquarters of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) which was supporting the two initiatives.
During the lecture, which was followed with enormous interest by a packed auditorium, Benitez drew on his and his staff’s experiences in the three most important leagues in Europe where he had won 9 trophies. For example he analysed the different structures of clubs in the different countries and compared the job of ‘Manager’ (England) to that of a sporting director or chief scout, as in other cases (Spain and Italy), and if any of them is any more successful than the others.
He also looked at the relationship between the different tactical systems used in the different leagues and considered whether a structure and system could be more successful than any other.
Citing lots of examples, the recent Champions League winners, Liverpool, Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester United and Inter Milan, Benitez showed that neither the structure nor the system nor a particular tactic had been the key to success for these teams, since they had all won at some stage representing their different countries and therefore their different philosophies, different structures and different tactics. So he then argued that success seems to come more from the squads they had and their players’ potential and quality or from their way of working.
As an innovation in line with the spirit of the exhibition, as a visual aid he used a new analysis program for competition and training session design that Rafa Benitez and his technical staff are developing. It is called Globall Coach, an application at the moment for the iPad although other formats are being considered for the future, and it is a sophisticated and versatile way of assisting in the planning and preparation of competition and day to day training. This option and technological tool helps in the daily preparation of training sessions as well as in the upcoming matches and was the centre of Rafa Benitez’s presentation.
The analysis centred on decisions you have to make as a ‘Manager’ or as a coach when you arrive at a new club with a new squad and the problems that entails, as well as arriving in a different country, with a different culture and the different demands each of them has.
From his experiences in different countries, Benitez detailed things you must not forget before you go out on the training ground and he spoke first about the importance of having a good general knowledge of everything surrounding the club. He listed the following essential things:
- Culture, club and city history, traditions…
- Club and team objectives.
- General operating conditions.
- Facilities and resources available.
- Technical and other staff.
- Squad, their age, positions, balance, requirements, local players, youth program…
- Transfer budget.
- Youth development rules and squad make-up (number of profesional players and the youth palyers).
- Competition rules, for example in Russia you always have to have 5 Russian players on the pitch.
- Competition and number of matches.
- Physical and Tactical data of previous seasons.
- Set piece statistics.
- Players injury history.
- Videos of past matches.
- Language and currency, something which is fundamental when dealing with players’ contracts and their agents.
- Organisation and daily work plan.
- Model of Play.
- Rotation of players (a subject already discussed on our website).
- Marking at set pieces (also previously discussed).
- Training session planning.
- Organisation of competition matches.
As far as the model of play is concerned, the idea of how to develop the team on the pitch, Rafa Benitez discussed what he tries to implement at a new club. His arguments are as follows:
- Our team has to try to impose our style of play and gain the initiative.
- Try to maintain a defence-attack balance.
- High tempo. Positive aggression.
- Try to maintain possession but looking to approach the opposition goal. With patience yet without delay.
- Ability top lay different systems and styles when necessary. Direct play or counter attack.
Later he spoke about attitude and team and individual values that will be shown by:
- Show adherence to club values and team objectives.
- Team interests must come before individual interests and respect must be shown at all times.
- Be a team that is active and competitive, with high positive aggression and a winning mentality with confidence in our own ability (play with intensity not pressure).
Later on Rafa Benitez told the conference how he and his technical staff prepare their training and competition and the technology used to help them manage the information.
With regard to training, he spoke about:
- Analysing the group, competitions and objectives, and after developing the plan, using macrocycles and microcycles leading to the training sessions. 80% of work is done with the ball.
- Daily preparation: meeting with the medical department to update on injuries and players available. Another meeting with the technical staff to modify the session.
- A duration of 60-90 minutes. Exercises related to the game plan. Work on strengths and weaknesses, specific exercises for different groups and/or the Young players. Collect data when the session is over and analyse it to modify the next training session.
- Heart monitors, GPS….realistic use so as not to alienate the players. Educate them so they get used to the technology and so they don’t see it as a harassment during training but as an advantage for them to improve.
- Look for intensity, good attitude, motivation to improve.
- Monitor the tactical and physical progress. Tactical training for the individual and for the group. Use of technology (Rafa Benitez pointed out how he and his staff use Amisco to control the technical and physical data, videos to prepare team talks and improve players and groups of players as well as analysis of the team and the opposition).
Equally, Rafa explained his use of statistics and information provided by Opta with whom we have a good relationship because of the quality and reliability of their data, both technical and tactical, that they have provided over the years.
- Presentation of the work done during the week with team talks, video and animations.
- Analysis of the opposition with video and preparing the game plan. Opta and Amisco (animations).
- Motivation, concentration, focus the team to get maximal performance.
- Review during the game, making adjustments and also at half time. Review after the game to use the information for the next match and modify the cycle.
- Analysis of the data from Opta and Amisco to study them along with our own data from our analysis department.
- At the end of the presentation he provided the following CONCLUSIONS:
- The club structure, and system of play or tactics, as the examples showed, do not necessarily guarantee success in the different competitions.
- Before making any decisions at a new club you have to find out as much as you can about the club to be able to plan properly.
- It is essential to amass information and organise it appropriately to access it easily.
- But the most important thing is to simplify the analysis process to enable us to make decisions and not to make things more confusing.
After his presentation, Rafa Benitez accompanied one of his technical staff, Dave McDonough, the technical analyst , to give another presentation on the operation of the analysis department for candidates on the ‘Masters Course for High Performance’ organised by the RFEF in conjunction with the Association of Fitness Coaches (special thanks to them) and the University.
Both the lecture for the Congress and the presentation for the candidates for the Masters course were positively received by those in attendance and by the organisers.
